


The You and Me of Things

by thedarkestdaisy



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-20
Updated: 2016-03-20
Packaged: 2018-05-27 21:17:37
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6300751
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedarkestdaisy/pseuds/thedarkestdaisy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bass tries to stand up from the couch but her arm pushes him back down until he turns to look at her. </p>
<p>“You don't want me. You're drunk and a little sad because it's your birthday and you don't want to be alone. What you want right now isn't the same as what you want when you're sober.”</p>
<p>"You're so fucking stupid, Bass."</p>
            </blockquote>





	The You and Me of Things

Bass stands in shock on the porch of his girlfriend's house.

Ex-girlfriend. An hour of yelling and the most stupid reasons for breaking up with someone still floating in his head as he slowly walks down the stripped wood steps and down the uneven sidewalk.

_“I probably won't be here when you wake up,” he had said while drying the dishes. Casey frowned and looked up at him._

_“Oh yeah? And where will you be?”_

_“It's Charlie's birthday today. Miles and I want to take her over to the next town tomorrow morning.” He meticulously dries a plate in circles with a rag. He feels her pause next to him._

_“You and her spent the night at Miles' last night. It feels like I always have to share you with someone.” He tries really hard not to roll his eyes. “You'd think she'd find someone in town to celebrate it with.”_

_He sets the plate down and turns to look at her. “What's that suppose to mean?” She gives up on the task of washing the rest of the dishes and wipes her hands on the towel before crossing her arms._

_“Charlie doesn't have any of her own friends so she spends all her time with you and her uncle. If you ask me I think she needs to get out more and connect with people her own age.”_

_He can feel the fight coming in her tone._

_“She doesn't really have a lot in common with people her own age. Are you jealous of her spending time with me or something?” He asks he calmly._

_“I wouldn't be if you would spend more time with me! I'm your girlfriend Bass. I'm the one you're suppose to come home to and wake up next to.” Her voice goes up a pitch and his eyebrows raise in surprise. She isn't the first female to get pissed off by his close connection to the Mathesons._

And that's how the whole argument started and he ended up with another ex-girlfriend. His boots take him down the familiar path of his favorite bar in town as he gathers his thoughts and curses himself under his breath.

It's true. He spends a lot of time with Charlie. Half of that time is also in the presence of her family but it doesn't cheapen their time together. He's found a connection in the twenty year old that he doesn't have with anyone else in town. She's just as jaded as anyone else who survived the Patriot War but she's just as eager as him to put everything behind her. 

As Miles and Rachel, and Aaron and Priscilla, and even Gene pair up he and Charlie are left on the sidelines looking on at the couples with confusion. Charlie mentioned once that she couldn't wrap her head around loving someone when you know they're the only ones who know how to hurt you. He gets it. He's had his own tragic loves. He thought that was behind him too.

He doesn’t know if she's still hung up on the loss of Jason and can't put herself out there or if she's just given up on feeling anything other than angry and complacent. It hurts seeing someone so young closed off to the world. But Casey has a point- she's never with anyone but her family, him, and herself. As he walks he racks his brain trying to come up with a time he's seen her with anybody but he comes up short with the realization that he's never seen her hanging out with locals her age or with any of the guys in town.

Bass sighs when he reaches the bar. The candlelight illuminates the smokey inside filled with familiar faces gathered around tables and sitting at the bar. And then his breath catches in his throat when his eyes land on the back of an instantly recognizable leather jacket at the bar.

Doesn’t she have anywhere better to be on her birthday? Like with her family? Something?

With all all the heavy thoughts from earlier tonight in his head he pulls out the bar stool next to her and plops down on the worn leather seat. She doesn't look up or acknowledge his presence. She sighs into her cup and pours more whiskey for herself from a bottle. It's more than half empty and Bass wonders if she's been here drinking all night.

“Hey.” He forces out, his voice dry and pitchy. Her brow raises and she smirks to herself as he clears his throat. “You gonna share the rest of that?”

“Nope.” She turns to smile at him and he grins back at her when she signals the bartender to bring another cup for him anyways. 

“You're spending your twenty-first birthday in a bar. That's fitting.” He pours himself a glass and feels his shoulders untense when the smokey flavor hits his tongue. “You doing anything else tonight?”

“Probably gonna stumble home and pass out on the couch in a boozy haze of alcohol.” She drains the rest of her cup and pours herself some more. He can't help but notice her words slur and her eyes have trouble focusing on him. 

Bass makes the decision right there that she's not going to walk home alone tonight. Sure she can be by herself- in fact she's kind of great at being alone, but that doesn't mean she should be. The words come out of his mouth before he can stop them.

“C'mon birthday girl, we're going home.” He grabs the bottle and offers her his arm. She looks at it, and he can tell she's deciding whether to listen to him or tell him to fuck off. When she slides off the stool and wraps her arm around his it's like the warmth of her body spreads into him. It's nothing new but it feels different this time, Casey's words ringing through his head clearly.

“So aren't you suppose to be with your girlfriend tonight?” She leans heavily on him, studying the ground as she walks.

“Ex-girlfriend and no.” He corrects her. And suddenly Charlie's pulling her arm out of his and staring up at him. Her face is flushed red and her eyes are dark from the alcohol. She takes a step back and nearly trips over her own boot until he reaches out and grabs the sleeve of her jacket to steady her. “You okay there?”

She nods and takes the bottle from him before taking it to her mouth and tipping her head back to drain it of its last few gulps. 

“You sure?” Bass laughs at her and wipes the trail running down the corner of her mouth. The hard look she gives him makes him pull his hand back quickly. 

“It just.. changes things.” Charlie looks down at her boots and whatever it is that always makes it feel good to be around her summons his fingers to tuck that stray wave of hair back behind her ear. When she looks up she's biting her lip.

“What kind of things?” He asks quietly worried if he pushes she'll push back and won't get a clear answer. 

“The you and me kind of things.” Charlie says before turning and continuing down the sidewalk to her little house. Bass follows her, his long strides catching up with her quickly. They walk in silence the rest of the way. Bass wraps his thoughts around what she said.

The you and me kind of things.

When they reach her porch steps she grabs his hand and he marvels at the cold of her fingers and the small size of her hand while she unlocks the door and pushes her way inside. He's frozen on the other side of the threshold until she tugs him all the way inside and shuts the door behind him. He locks the door while she lights a few candles and takes her jacket off to then get comfortable on the couch. 

Charlie watches him with slow blinking, drunk eyes while he shrugs off his jacket and lays it on the back of the couch before joining her.

“Did you know that you and Miles are pretty much the only people in this entire town that I don't actually hate?” She toes her boots off and then curls her legs underneath her. 

“Yeah, you don't really have a lot of friends. You're kind of anti-social, Charlotte.” He laughs at the way she rolls her eyes at him.

“I don't hate you, Bass.” She gets on her knees and scoots across the faded cushions until their legs touch and she's looking down at him with the most serious face she can muster at the moment.

“I know.” He nods at her with a small smile. Drunk Charlie is kind of adorable. “I don't hate you either.”

“No. I mean...” She sighs and sits back on her legs before facing him again with a softer face. “I mean I _really_ don't hate you. And if you're not with anyone- if you feel the way I think you might, it changes things.”

“The you and me kind of things, right?” He offers trying to get her back on track. “What did you mean by that?” 

Charlie squirms around on the cushion and he can practically see the thoughts twirling around her head like a tornado until she finally comes to a conclusion. It feels like a century of awkward silence before she gives in. She leans forward with a stealthy slowness he's never seen her imitate before and tilts her head just so to press a gentle kiss to his jaw. 

It's the most innocent and game changing kiss he ever received. It doesn't feel wrong to have her close and it takes everything not to wrap his arms around her and pull her on to his lap and show her what a real kiss between them would be like.

When she pulls away and opens her eyes he thinks she's waiting for him to say something or do something. “I want you. There's nobody else that makes me feel how you make me feel. Do you understand what I'm saying? I don't hook up with the guys around here because you're the only guy that I want. I don't hang out with other people because you're the only one I want to be with.”

“Charlie,” he sighs and brings a palm up to his forehead to push back his hair in a nervous gesture. He can't do this to her. He can't give her a drunk night of sex just because she's lonely. Bass tries to stand up from the couch but her arm pushes him back down until he turns to look at her. “You don't want me. You're drunk and a little sad because it's your birthday and you don't want to be alone. What you want right now isn't the same as what you want when you're sober.”

“Just because I'm a little tipsy doesn't mean I'm suddenly in love with you. It didn't all just happen in one night.” Her face crinkles up in anger. “I have wanted you for a long time. And when I finally get a chance to say it you say I don't know what I want? That I'm too drunk to understand what I'm feeling? You're so fucking stupid, Bass.” Charlie pushes away from him and stomps down the short hallway to her room. 

Bass is still sitting on the couch in shock when he hears her possibly getting undressed and throwing her clothes on the floor and crawling into bed. He's standing up and gathering his jacket to leave when he hears her stomping back and he's floored to see her in just a tank and panties with tears gathered in the corners of her eyes. 

“I want you now just as much as I wanted you yesterday and the day before that! And then I will want you tomorrow. If you don't feel that way fine. Say goodnight and I promise I will forget all about it. But if you do- if there's a small chance that you might, let me know.”

He sets his jacket back down on the couch and walks towards her until there's just a breath of space between them. And then he walks in on her even more until she's caught between him and the wall at her back. They watch each other, waiting for the inevitable pull that always brings them together.

“What happens if we change those you and me things? Make them into something more?” He whispers softly, his eyes searching hers for an ounce of regret.

“They get better.” Her voice is coarse and trembling. 

“Okay.” Bass nods once mostly to himself before leaning down and pressing a kiss to her forehead. He feels her hands reaching up and directing his mouth to hers. She wastes no time licking into his mouth and suddenly he has to have her closer. He gathers her up in his arms and she wraps her legs around him. They are a mix of groping hands, hot breaths, sticky whiskey tongues, and nerves firing a syntax of _finally._

Bass wades into the dark to her bedroom and they fumble with his clothes until he's leaning over her in his boxers with her legs thrown over her shoulders. He kisses her and sucks and bites until she squirms and screams until the grip she has on his hair hurts. 

Her chest is pounding and she swallows air like a person dying of thirst as he kisses his way over her breasts and up to her face. They laugh together as she toes his boxers down his legs and they throw them on the floor with the rest of her clothes. 

The way Charlie looks up at him makes him understand what she meant by all the things. There's a reason why he always notices her in a crowd. A reason why they always stick up for each other. A reason why her laugh makes him say sarcastic bitchy things to his best friend. A reason why he doesn't want to see her with anyone else. A reason why they share looks of exasperation, understanding, simultaneous confusion, and unidentified longing. 

Because these are all the Charlie and Bass things.

And when he sinks into her and her breath hitches in her chest he knows these things are just the surface of all the great things. They move together in a way that he should have realized was always going to be perfect for them. She meets him with every push, for every point of pressure his fingers leave on her hips she nips at him harder. She doesn't look away from him as they rock closer to completion and when he finally loses himself in her he keeps his eyes open to watch her arch off the bed and slump back down in a beautiful mess. 

They spend the rest of the night between sheets and kisses.

_And when morning comes he doesn't leave._

**Author's Note:**

> It's my birthday and you're getting the gift.  
> But mostly because I was drunk all night and had nothing to do and no one to celebrate it with because I'm such an anti-social pain in the ass.


End file.
